After a long and distinguished career on
Lake Lucerne, Captain Alois Kaufmann made his last voyage in command of the
paddle steamer Stadt Luzern on Sunday 18th October before retiring.

The Stadt Luzern (pictured
arriving at Weggis) is the largest of the five paddle steamers on the lake and
is the flagship of the fleet.

Capt Kaufmann joined the SGV company in 1966 as
a seaman and gained his first licence
to drive the smaller motor boats in 1969. He gradually progressed up the scale, acquiring the necessary certificates to become master of the largest
motor vessels and paddle steamers and, in 1984, at the age of 37, became captain of
the paddle steamer Gallia.

Three years later, he was promoted to the
flagship Stadt Luzern which he has commanded ever since, a longer period
than any other of her captains in her history. Altogether he
has spent more than forty years on the lake of which a quarter of a century have
been as a paddle steamer captain.

When not afloat he has
been at the heart of crew training and has been instrumental in teaching each
new generation the mysteries and complexities of how to operate and drive the
wide variety of ships in the fleet.

Stadt Luzern arriving at Hertenstein

I think that the Swiss paddle steamer captains are
amongst the finest
ship handlers I have ever seen.
Their ability to put motor vessels and paddle steamers, two hundred or so
feet long, pretty much instantly alongside tiny piers often very close to rocky
shores is
quite breathtaking. The steamers arrive, they make fast and the gangway is put out
all in the twinkling of an eye. Turn your back for a second and you have missed
it. And all this is done without rope-handlers ashore, without winches to haul
the ships alongside the piers and with only a tiny crew. It all looks so easy. But the swiftness,
deftness and speed of berthing belie the subtle and complex art which is
going on behind it. And Capt Kaufmann is a master of that art.

On his last trip down the lake from
Fluelen, there were crowds of friends and well-wishers at each of the piers
waiting to say their goodbyes. A presentation with speeches was made in the
first class saloon en route and then it was back to Lucerne where Capt Kaufmann
bid farewell personally to all the passengers as they went ashore.

All of us at Kingswear Castle
would like to send our very best wishes to Capt Kaufmann for a long,
happy and well deserved retirement.